With the summer coming up, many college and high school students are looking for summer jobs to earn some income. For many, it’s just a job or just a paycheck. I’m hoping to encourage others to look for just more than the money. I thought it would be fun to reminisce about some of my first summer jobs and money lessons I learned from the job and what I learn from the job.

Office Assistant (Real Estate Appraisal)

A friend of the family asked if I would be interested in helping out that summer with paperwork. I was 14 and I could finally officially work and I was eager to earn some money besides my babysitting and odd jobs. The pay was great for me ($15/hour) and once he explained the job, it seemed I could handle the work.

It was an incredible job and I was so sad when the work was over. The boss was a teacher in the sense that he laid out clear objectives of what he expected and helped me to become familiar with the tools and software. The job was great as it was a confidence and resume booster.

Work That’s Fun and With Good Pay? Possible

I’m grateful that my first job was a great experience. It really helped me to see that you can work somewhere, enjoy what you do, and get paid for the work that you put in. While it was only a temporary summer job, it was enough for me understand that you don’t have to suffer through a job you hate. Thanks to this job, I’ve made decision to quit jobs when they started being unreasonable or crossed a line. At first it hurt my budget, but I learned with time to do a better job at the interview and ask employers more questions about what they expect.

Be Open to New Opportunities

I could’ve said no- it involved learning new software and I had no idea how real estate appraisal worked. Some of my friends thought the job sounded boring and thought I should pass. I’d have to dress up and go to an office, cutting into my summer plans (I worked during the day). I decided to go ahead and try it out and I’m so glad I did.

Many other opportunities that have improved my finances came from taking a chance and learning a new skill. I was able to use that ability to pick up software rather quickly as a selling point in my other job interviews.

Food Crew (Fast Food Chain)

So I basically went from the best summer job to a horrible one the next year. I thought it would be great to work with a national company and the store location was less than 10 minutes from the beach. I figured I would get off of work and head down to the oceanfront to hang with my friends. I’d have plenty of money to spend and save (ha!).

I quickly learned that I was just employee meant to do a very specific job (unless of course I had to cover for someone). Simply a cog in the machines, I was bored out of my mind half of the time. I still worked hard and gave my best when I was clocked in.

Pay Doesn’t Always Match Work

Compared to my other job, I was doing much more physical labor for a fraction of the pay.

Rushing the Job Hurts Everyone

I had a lot of incompetent coworkers. Half of them would show up late or had to have their work redone. They rushed the job just to get it done, but it was sloppy. Another problem was the small space that we were cramped in while working together. That lead to a lot of close calls with one another. One occassion really scared me.

We were having a busy night with the drive-thrus and we were packed around each other. Someone ordered a banana split and my coworker was supposed to handle it. She literally turned with the knife out and nicked my eye. As you can imagine, I panicked and ran to check on my eye. Grateful that I didn’t lose my sight, I requested that I go home with pay. My scared manager agreed and I had a night off. I quit shortly thereafter.

Food Crew (Family Owned Business)

Ironically it was the same as job that I had with the national chain, but this time it was a family owned franchise. A mother and daughter ran the small Italian Icee shop and there was a small crew of about 10 people. There were 2 shift supervisors that had worked a few seasons with them and were in charge. The store was a well oiled machone and while the pay wasn’t great, the atmosphere was fantastic.

If we completed our work we could read if it was a slow days. We weren’t given busy work just have work. We were treated as adults and as along as the customers were happy and the back end work was completed by the end of our shift our bosses were fine with it. Freedom to find what worked for us made the job fun and challenging.

Investing and Saving Early Can Have a Big Impact

My shift supervisor was an interesting character. He was in college and tried to pass his bit of wisdom to the est of us. I remember on slow days he’d talk to us about finances. He reminded us to save a portion of our paychecks no matter what. He pointed out that he was able to avoid having credit card debt and car payments because he had a routine of saving before making big purchases. It didn’t really hit me until years later, but I realize how valuable that piece of advice is.

Investing is More than Retirement

I also learned another thing from my shift supervisor that I hadn’t heard from anyone I personally knew. I always associated investing with saving for retirement. I heard about 401(k)s, but I didn’t know you could save for other things. He was investing for future goals like a house down payment. His family prepared him by setting the accounts up, but once he started working he was expected to contribute to the accounts.

I also respected how his parents expected him to play a part in his own financial future. Part of becoming independent is having to do things on your own. With our daughter we hope to do the same as she grows up. We’ll start her off and show her what we know, but at some point she’ll have to take responsibility for her money.

Thoughts on First Jobs and Lessons Learned

I thought I would have financial lesson or two to share, but reviewing the jobs in my mind helped me realize how much I picked up from the work, the people, and myself. I’d love to get your perspective. What were some of your first jobs? Which ones were your favorites? Which did you hate? What lessons did you learn on the job and from the job?

Elle helps families at Couple Money and My Financial Reviews achieve financial freedom by sharing tips for reducing debt, increase income, and building net worth. Learn how to live on one income and have fun with the second.

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Definitely! My first job was in a cafe (everything from dishwashing to making smoothies and running the till). It was a fast environment and a big learning curve – I think the biggest thing I learned was from a former bigshot who wanted to slow down and thus became a barista – that that is also a perfectly legit choice. That and you can never totally trust your boss…they eventually simply stopped rostering me on. I never actually quit nor did they let me go.

I also worked at a cinema (dealing with some crazy managers) and in a call centre (in which I learned I had a good voice and was tougher than I thought, but still no salesperson)

Sounds like you were on your feet, keeping busy! My sister had a job where they just scheduling her too. That’s so unprofessional. It amazes me how some business still function with management like that.

Summer jobs were a great learning experience for me! When I started learning how difficult it was to earn money, I had a much greater respect for the dollar.

My first job was at the local greenhouse. I trimmed plants for optimal growth. It was pretty boring, but we could basically talk to our friends the whole time while we sat on a stool, so it wasn’t all bad. I’m glad I was able to escape that job though….

I worked off and on early bucking hay bales, but my real first job was moving water irrigation lines. It was early morning work and stunk (I’m a late riser), but the pay was good and it gave me some gas money. I learned quite a bit about responsibility too, as if the lines didn’t get moved, parts of the pasture would flood, and other parts wouldn’t grow and that affected the entire hay crop. Glad I don’t do that sort of thing anymore though.

I was the best damn egg McMuffin maker in the city working at McDonald’s from 6am to 2pm! Damn, I hated that job. Paid $3.13 an hour or so, and we had an abusive manager who told us never to speak Spanish (practicing with my colleagues). I ate all the apple pies I wanted though!

Main thing I learned was that I better freaking study/work hard, so that I don’t have to work in fast food after I graduate!

My first job was waxing and sharpening my friends ski’s in my garage. After spending many hours working hard in the freezing cold I realized that I was spending almost as much on wax and supplies than I was making…so that business didn’t last too long….but it got me a taste of the entreprenuerial life-style and I knew I wanted to be my own boss!

I’m so glad I got a summer job now, but I wasn’t too happy then. My mom told me that when I was 16, I had to get a job. She basically dropped me off at the mall and said call me when you have a job. It worked, and it was nice having some money all summer!

I worked at McDonalds for my first job and I loved it! Mostly because I had cool coworkers. But I quit after a year when I found out that new hires were making more than me and they wouldn’t give me a raise! That was my first introduction to corporate life.

It sucks but that’s the way it is… In my job now, you never know what other people are making at the same position as you, because they’ll only offer what they think that particular person needs to make them take the job/stay.

Holy smokes I’m glad your eye was ok! I can’t imagine how scary that must have been. Most of my summers were spent at some type of music camp or traveling with family. I earned some extra change doing errands and chores for my parents, and later at unpaid internships at small businesses. Although I didn’t make any money, the experiences really got my foot in the door when I started interviewing for full time work and helped beef up my resume.

I first started getting paid by washing dishes at a banquet hall…then working as a retail customer service rep. All in high school.

The dishwashing job taught me how much I had better make sure to stay on track with grades! Funny, it was actually mindless work and I enjoyed talking with my coworkers while doing it. Something about the inner perfectionist in me got some kind of kick out of getting everything perfect. I learned to make the best of it, while also learning how doing that for a living would get me nowhere in terms of my goals.

The customer service rep job was quite interesting. I ended up liking just talking to the coworkers and getting to know them more than I liked the job. Some of those people were real characters. Smart people, a few of them, but I realized that they just didn’t have the perspective on the importance of education and career goals. It was a lesson to me that the difference between one life track and another life track can indeed be very small, and a matter of a few different perspectives.

I had a handful of summer jobs in college and high school. I remember the summer after my senior year my dad got me a job at the University where he teaches, hauling fruit back and forth between Fresno and Riverside. If there’s one takeaway that you brought up here that I wish I had paid attention to or learned when I was younger, it’s saving a portion of your money. I lived beyond my means till I was about 30, and I think I could have been much smarter about it if I had some good mentors in these summer jobs. I also chose certain jobs for money and as a result ended up in situations I hated. So it’s not always the money that’s the only criteria for a summer job.

We lived pretty far away from commercial areas, so my parents didn’t want me to get a job since they’d have to either drive me or I’d have to borrow their cars to get there. They had horses though, so I would get paid to help out with chores around the barn and in the garden. My first real job was working at the dining hall in college – it definitely taught me how long it takes to earn much when you are getting paid $6/hour. I wish I had saved more of it then, but I considered it my spending money, rather than something that was worth saving. I think having a boss/parent encourage me to always save 25% or something of my paycheck, no matter how small, would have been a great lesson.

I grew up on a farm, so we started work very early. My first job off the farm was at 12 when I mucked horsestalls for a neighboring farm and was paid $98 per week (hurrah!!!). This helped me save up enough money (together with a $1,000 scholarship) to travel abroad to Spain for six weeks when I was 16. What an awesome trip!

Then I worked as a translator for the Chester County Migrant Ministry, which was very relevant and meaningful work. Throughout college I was a librarian (federal work study program), as well as drove Amish to market places on the weekends.

During the summer and winter breaks I was a substitute teacher assistant to special needs children–I learned much patience and understanding through this job and it was a joy.

i took up a summer job in a taco bell 10 minutes away from home when i was in high school. i worked my way into the fastest drive through operator in the entire district (district managers typically have 15-25 stores under their supervision). drive through experience is timed for those that do not know. there is a clock (ticker) inside the store. those times are logged, analyzed and used to improve customer experience. i had cars in and out in less than 30 seconds on average.

on lighter days, my helper and i would have some fun with drive through customers when i spoke in my forged indian accent offering them a “been bu-ree-tto” and a “toas-tta-ttaa”.

I wish I had a more glamourous (aka more than minimum wage) first summer job. My first one was canvassing around different neighbourhoods for a donations for children in Africa (it was Feed the Children or something).
Boy was it an adventure! We would get dropped off via van, then go on our canvassing route.
one time a guy didn’t open the door, looked at me through the window and turned on his automatic garden sprinkler on me!! :(

I was the youngest Fuller Brush Dealer at 17 in the country selling household items door to door. My average earnings was $3.50 -4.50 per hour when the minimum wage was $1.10. The earnings I made that summer was used for spending money in my first year of college. I placed myself on a budget of $10 per week for dating, laundry, food, and misc. expenses. It taught me to save and cut corners looking for free things in order to have a social life. I learned invaluable lessons from that job and that first year. I attribute a lot of my success and accomplishments to that experience.

My first summer job was collating papers at a print shop that was owned by my friend’s dad. He was a real stickler on taking a lunch break and not working through it. He always made us sandwiches. I got a lot of paper cuts and a lot of peanut butter and jelly! LOL

I also worked in fast food, and I don’t think I’d ever let one of my own kids do it. The floors were greasy and there were sometimes close calls. Minimum wage is not worth the risk of a serious burn or injury. There are still PLENTY of other jobs that you can do that are not too dangerous and give good experience.

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